A demonstration of the next release of Novell's Linux for desktops drew cheers and applause Wednesday, although the final version of the software is not expected for some months. Nat Friedman, the company's vice president of Linux desktop engineering, showed Novell Linux Desktop 10 playing videos and MP3 music files, and exchanging music and photos with an iPod and a digital camera, in a keynote presentation at the Solutions Linux conference and trade show on the outskirts of Paris.

do your homework - if you want free software for the freedom, you prefer Qt cuz it is GPL (and if you want to create proprietary software with it, you have to pay). and if you're a company, you rather pay for a good tool + support.

anyway, this has indeed been discussed, but after 1998 new things have happened. i think its time for you to read up since then.